The Borscht Belt emerged partly because many Jewish Americans were excluded from mainstream resorts and country clubs in the early 20th century. So they created their own vast vacation culture in the Catskills.

By the 1950s–60s, the region was enormously popular:

comedians developed material there
musicians performed there
entire NYC neighborhoods migrated upstate every summer

Mountaindale was one of the smaller but culturally dense hubs of that world.

Catskills had hundreds of small bungalow colonies during the height of the “Borscht Belt” era, located in or around Mountaindale in Sullivan County, a major center of Jewish summer vacation culture from roughly the 1920s through the 1970s.
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A Walk on the Moon is a 1999 coming-of-age romantic drama set during the summer of 1969 in the Catskills during the Apollo 11 moon landing era. It’s one of the more emotionally nuanced films about Jewish-American bungalow colony life in the late Borscht Belt period.
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The musical version of A Walk on the Moon is a stage adaptation of the 1999 film, turning the Catskills bungalow-colony story into a sung-through dramatic musical set against the summer of 1969, Woodstock, and the Apollo moon landing. The musical begins a 10 week run Off Broadway starting June 2026.

The musical was adapted by the film’s original screenwriter: Pamela Grey. Pamela spent summers at one particular Bunglalow vacation hub,

which belonged to my Grandfather. Although the production changed the name of the Colony, it was …,

DR. LOCKER’S BUNGALOWS

As the name implies, it was indeed my Grandfather’s operation. Found some pictures and 16mm film. The 16mm film is partly Catskills, and partly NYC.

Dr. Locker’s sons, Daniel, Morty, and Martin went to public grade school with Don Rickles, which led to Sammy Davis, jr working his way into the story, but the details are very vaque.

As an aside, there also was, at one time, “The Locker Mansion”, around 1900. Little is still known about this second property, but was likely a boarding house for area workers.

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In 1991, Dr. Locker’s Grandson, me, was a radio personality at the nearby rock station, “92.7 The Orange”.
One afternoon, after my shift, I had time to kill before an evening appearance. Long before GPS, I was cruising around the back roads near Mountaindale, NY. Something caught me eye, I slammed the brakes and did a 180 into the shoulder.

Over the road, a huge black and white sign, “Dr. Locker’s Bungalows”.

I returned with my Dad and Uncle Morton as well asCousin David Locker, my brother, Josh Locker, and our Mom.
Most of these photos from our tour.

In the collection, there is a shot of tthe abandoned “casino”, the actual one where the Moon Landing was watched, and seeded the motion picture and musical. A couple of pictures of Locker’s maintenance man. his name escapes me. He is the older, white haired gentleman.